"America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge. I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture..."
BBC's Washington correspondent Justin Webb, in a remarkably frank admission of his role in misinforming the British public about America and Americans

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

BBC doing its best to prolong Miers' 15 minutes

Does anyone else find it mildly irritating that, nearly 3 months after the fact, virtually every mention of new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito by the BBC comes with the addendum that “Mr Bush's earlier choice for the post, lawyer Harriet Miers, withdrew when conservatives refused to support her”? See here, here, here, here, and here for the most recent examples. Is that fact really still relevant in any way at all?

Will we, years from now and following a particularly interesting Supreme Court decision, be reminded that the deciding vote was cast by Justice Alito, Harriet Myers having withdrawn herself when conservatives refused to support her nomination?

BTW, note the stellar BBC coverage of the confirmation vote. It doesn't even reveal what the final vote in the Senate was. (For those interested, it was 58-42.)

If the BBC had shown little interest in covering the Alito nomination and confirmation process, you might have a point. Given, however, that it showed tremendous interest in it, and a depth of interest to the point of repeatedly mentioning not just Alito but even the person who was no longer even a candidate, I have to conclude that you don't.